The message of Chapter 16, told in two parables and a showdown with the Pharisees, is that the disciple of Christ must use the temporary resources of this sinful world to affect eternity.  The believer is a steward of what he has and knows the rewards of this life are finite, thus it makes no sense to pursue them as ends unto themselves.  They instead must be a means to store up treasure in the kingdom of God.  We are called to be faithful in this life with what ultimately doesn’t belong to us so we can enjoy eternal treasure that does.

The one who celebrates treasure in this world misses and twists the purpose of the resources God gives him.  His love of wealth blinds him to the reason he has it.  It’s why no one can serve two masters or love God and mammon.

For our study, we’ll split the chapter into two lessons.  The first lesson will cover the Parable of the Dishonest Steward and its applications.  The second lesson will cover the showdown with the Pharisees and the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.

1-9
The chapter begins with probably the strangest parable Jesus ever tells.  It uses a cast of characters, all acting selfishly or dishonestly, to make a point about using the riches of today to prepare for eternity.  Jesus tells of a blatantly sinful man to illustrate how to live the Christian life.  Note, the lesson isn’t how NOT to live.  The man is held up as an example – in certain aspects of his dishonest actions – of HOW to live.  It’s an approach that’s completely at odds with what we expect from a parable and unlike any other of Jesus’ teachings.

Because it’s so different, there is disagreement over numerous aspects of the parable.  Is the steward (manager) dishonest in what he tells the master’s debtors to do or is he simply cleaning up some sins of the master and/or sacrificing his own profits for the sake of the master?  Does the parable end in verse 7 or verse 8a?  Does the master actually commend the steward’s actions or is it God who commends the steward in 8a?

Ultimately, outside of the meaning, the questions surrounding the parable aren’t all that important.  Regardless of how they’re answered, they don’t take away from the lesson Jesus wants to communicate.  It’s interesting to debate the intricacies of the story (and some of the questions are born out of a desire to explain away that Jesus uses someone who’s dishonest to make a point about the Christian life), but what view is right is much less important than understanding the overall lesson.  Fortunately, Jesus gives us an epilogue that helps explain the parable’s meaning and the rest of the chapter reinforces what we’re supposed to learn from it.

Luke doesn’t make it clear at the beginning of the chapter, but there remain two groups listening to Jesus – His disciples (which might include the sinners and tax collectors from Chapter 15) and Pharisees (vs 14).  Unlike the parables of Chapter 15, however, both parables in this chapter are targeted mostly at the disciples.

The first parable tells the story of a rich man who finds out that his steward (or manager – one who oversees the finances of the rich man and has authority to enter into financial arrangements and contracts on the rich man’s behalf) has been squandering the rich man’s possessions.  This squandering likely includes embezzling money and using it for his own benefit.  The rich man calls the steward in and confronts him with what he’s heard.  The steward offers no defense – thus tacitly admitting his guilt – and the rich man fires him.  As the steward’s last task, the rich man demands a final accounting from him.

This final accounting gives the steward time to scheme before he’s out on the street.  He considers his future and doesn’t like what he sees.  He doesn’t want to lower himself to manual labor (“I’m not strong enough to dig” – he has finance hands) and he’s too proud to beg (thus proving he’s no Temptations fan).  He needs to come up with a way to support himself once he’s no longer the rich man’s steward.

It’s at this point – when things look bleakest – that he has an idea.  He’ll take care of the rich man’s debtors such that they’ll owe him and provide for him when he loses his job.  They’ll accept him into their homes in gratitude for reducing their debt.

He acts on the plan by calling the debtors in one by one.  The story gives the example of two debtors, but the implication is that he does this with everyone who owes his master money.  When first debtor comes in, the steward tells him to take his bill for 100 measures of oil and write it down to 50; for the second debtor, the steward tells him to write his bill down from 100 measures of wheat to 80.  These amounts are large (100 measures of wheat is roughly equal to the produce of 100 acres), so assuming the steward does this with all the rich man’s debtors, the loss to the rich man is significant and the favors to be called in by the steward are long-lasting and lucrative (the men owing these amounts must have means of their own). He’s ensured he’ll be taken care of for the foreseeable future.

The rich man realizes at some point what the unrighteous steward has done and also realizes there’s nothing he can do about it (the steward had the authority to act in his name and so there’s no way to reverse the damage done).  Thus, he grudgingly (presumably) acknowledges the cleverness of the steward.  It wasn’t honest and it hurt the rich man, but it was shrewd.

Some things to note before moving into the application.  First, notice that no one in the story is honorable.  The rich man appears to be ruthless and out of touch (“What is this I hear about you?”).  The steward is fired for being careless and dishonest and responds by being even more dishonest.  He also refuses to do an honest day’s work (both before and after he’s fired).  And the debtors don’t hesitate to steal money from the one they owe (assuming that the steward did in fact tell them to simply reduce their debt – there is some thought that the steward instead told them to simply remove the interest that was implicit in their debt and that was illegally charged by the rich man – this explanation is plausible but also perhaps a bit complicated for Jesus’ listeners).  It’s so interesting in this light that Jesus uses this story to tell believers how to live.

Second, the message of the parable isn’t entirely clear.  Even after reading verse 8, it’s not obvious what lesson Jesus wants His listeners to learn.  Verse 9 helps to shed light on it, but it really takes the rest of the chapter and the second parable to fully understand what we’re to learn from the dishonest steward and his dishonest friends.

In verses 8b and 9, Jesus provides the epilogue to the story.  The sons of this age – nonbelievers who have no thought of obeying the Law or following Jesus – are oftentimes more shrewd in how they relate to their own world than believers are in how they relate to the kingdom.  Believers must use unrighteous wealth (mammon) – the wealth of this world that has value only in this unrighteous age – to make friends such that those friends will receive believers into eternal dwellings (just like the debtors received the dishonest steward into their houses). 

It’s at this point as readers of Luke that we might look blankly at the text and scratch our heads.  We’re to be more shrewd with how we handle money?  Is that essentially the takeaway?  We’re not to be dishonest – presumably – but we’re to be shrewd?  Is this because Christians tend to be naïve and simple?  And since that’s true, Jesus wants us to be a little sharper and more on top of things and make friends by using our money, like the dishonest steward?

Here’s what seems to make sense.  The steward knows that his current situation is about to end.  There’s no doubt about that and there’s nothing he can do to change it.  Thus, he uses the means at his disposal to make a home for himself in the future.  Was he dishonest?  Yes, but he was also – from a worldly perspective (which is all he cares about) – wise.  In the same way, believers know that this life is not forever and there is coming a time when they will enter eternity.  There’s no doubt about that and there’s nothing they can do to change it.  Thus, they must use the means at their disposal to make that entrance as positive as possible by helping others who will then welcome them into eternal dwellings.

Jesus does not mean that we ensure our entrance into the kingdom by how we use money.  What He means instead is that we store up treasure in heaven when we use money to help and save others.  The type of entrance into eternity we receive is affected greatly by how we use the worldly resources He gives us.  What’s spent on kingdom priorities has eternal value.

The parable shows that we’re to see the worldly resources we have – money, time, possessions – as means to an end, not ends unto themselves.  God gives them to us to affect His kingdom, not to hoard for our own purposes or covet for the comfort and luxury they afford.  If we aspire to have more of any of them, we must aspire for the purpose of making a greater impact on eternity.

How we make that impact is primarily by using resources for others.  Giving money, time, and possessions to spread the gospel, alleviate suffering, and meet needs is how we make friends for ourselves who receive us into eternal dwellings.

Before leaving this section, there are three words in verse 9 we can’t miss.  Jesus says to make friends using wealth so that when it fails they may receive us into eternal dwellings.  Notice that He doesn’t say ‘if’.  Wealth will absolutely fail us.  It will fail in how it’s only temporary.  It goes away when this life is over.  But it also fails as a goal or ultimate pursuit.  It doesn’t pay off (ironically), it doesn’t satisfy.  The one who wants it for itself always wants more of it.  The heart of man is never satisfied because what the heart ultimately wants is something money can’t supply.  That’s why He says to use it for eternal purposes.  Wealth has no value in and of itself and it always fails its pursuer, but it has immense value when it’s used to affect the eternal home of others.

10-13
Another element to the parable that’s very intentional is the occupation of the main character.  He is a steward (manager).  He doesn’t own the resources he deploys for his own wellbeing.  He works for the rich man who owns everything the steward possesses.  The steward owns nothing, that’s why he’s so fearful of what life will be like when he’s put out on the street.  That the steward utilizes the rich man’s assets – not his own – to secure his future is the lesson Jesus wants to communicate to His disciples.

As disciples we don’t own anything.  Everything we have belongs to God – the owner and creator – and is put into our possession to manage.  As good managers, then, we deploy the assets in our charge according to the owner’s wishes – not our own.  And the owner is interested in people and eternity, not wealth for wealth’s sake and not comfort and luxury for our sake.

This is what leads Jesus to say what He says in these verses.  The references here are important to identify.  Very little thing, unrighteous mammon/wealth, and that which is another’s all refer to money.  Much, true riches, that which is your own all refer to treasure in heaven or things that have eternal value.  What ISN’T ours is what we have at our disposal now.  What truly WILL BE ours is what we can store up in eternity by being faithful with what isn’t ours during this life.

The lesson is that our faithfulness or lack of faithfulness in handling money has eternal ramifications.  Just like any money manager, we’re charged with handling our client’s money wisely and according to his wishes.  When we do that, we’ll be rewarded with true riches that don’t fail and that will fully belong to us for all eternity.  When we don’t do that, when we look at our resources as owners instead of stewards, we won’t be faithful to the real owner’s wishes or store up treasure in the next life and we’ll suffer when the wealth of this world fails.

The ramifications Jesus teaches here are dire.  What we do with what He’s given us MATTERS.  Our financial decisions – and, really, all decisions having to do with resources, including time and possessions – affect eternity.  Knowing that, it should cause us to have a radically different view of how we manage those resources than what the world preaches.  We aren’t here to pursue our happiness and comfort above all.  We’re here to affect eternity, and the purest way to do that is through ministering to others with the resources God’s given us.  That’s how we’re faithful with unrighteous mammon that belongs to another.

Ultimately, we’re called to a life of generosity.  If God owns everything we have, then everything we have is available for service to Him and to others He brings into our lives.  Money, time, and possessions belong to God and are available for whatever He calls us to.  The steward who truly understands his role will be generous with the resources he’s been commanded to deploy generously.  In practical terms, I might be hesitant to give my own money away, but if I’m simply managing someone else’s money and that person has instructed me to give it away generously, it’s not hard to follow orders.

Jesus ends with a warning (vs 13).  It’s impossible to love both money and God and it’s impossible to serve them both.  By definition, you can’t consider money as your own and love it for what it does for you and be a faithful steward.  That’s a privilege only owners have.  The steward has one mission – serving the owner.  When we worry about, depend upon, wish for, covet, and work for money with no thought of what its true purpose is or who its true owner is, we serve and love it to the exclusion of serving and loving its owner.  A faithful steward loves and serves his boss, not the resources the boss gives him.

Lessons
Use the wealth of this world to prepare for the next.
Manage wealth as stewards, not owners.
Understand that our management of wealth has eternal ramifications.
Love and serve God, not the wealth He gives us.

(wealth includes any resource God gives us, including time, money, and possessions)